The 70-acre Liddington Hall Farm hit the headlines in 1982 when Surrey County Council, the then owners of Merrist Wood, fought hard to use the farm for an estate of more than 700 homes.The borough council, however, was equally determined to designate the area as green belt and won the battle to preserve the green lung separating the Guildford sprawl from Worplesdon.Now, Surrey is under enormous pressure to find sites to accommodate the extra 45,000 houses demanded by the Government and at the density of 12-20 houses per acre recommended by guidelines, the farm could take up to 1,400 homes, twice the number rejected in 1982.At that time, Surrey hoped the inspector at the borough plan inquiry would support the argument that the land should be excluded from the green belt. However, there was no support for the county and it backed off. Liddington Hall Farm was handed over to Merrist Wood College.History is now repeating itself. With the decline in agriculture, the farm has become surplus to Merrist Wood’s requirements and the college wants the land removed from the green belt in the borough local plan so it could be residentially developed.If it is not required for development in the next few years, the college wants it designated as white land. This would remove green belt protection ready for the 2006 plan.A borough council spokesman confirmed that it had received an objection to the green belt status of the farmland, but said it was strongly against its removal and would oppose any such move at the public inquiry into the plan which is scheduled to start in May.The commercial director of Merrist Wood, Roger Pearce, said that the farm was leased to a business tenancy. He added that now agriculture has diminished, the college taught a diversity of subjects "so we have not needed Liddington Hall Farm for the past five or six years". The renewed threat of a massive housing estate on the green belt site has angered the Gravetts Lane Action Group that was formed to combat the 1982 proposal.Committee member Rod Wild, of Gravetts Lane, said development of the farmland would affect residents of Liddington Hall Drive, Liddington New Road, Gravetts Lane and the Rydes Hill area.Mr Wild said the action group had distributed a news sheet around the area to alert the residents.At about the time of the first threat, there was a scare that cyanide waste had been buried on land at the farm. It was claimed at the time that it was buried 40 years earlier by workers at a former factory in Gravetts Lane.It was eventually declared safe from cyanide waste pollution after surveys and studies.